Before the holidays, our parents would send us to school with big bags of fudge alligators. They would plan enough for everyone in the school's front office plus our teachers, the custodians and more. We brought in a ton of fudge. The Dickinson kids were well liked by people who worked at the school. 

They always seem to have been the best years of your life. Frank and I used to spend a lot of time at each others house. Frank had a drivers license but he never drove back then. So whenever we went anyplace it would be me driving. With me driving, Frank was always up against the door, curled up in the corner, Yelling J***s C****t Ron watch out! Of course the only close calls was whenever there happened to be some girls walking along and we would be gawking. Like the time I almost ran into the back of  bus! After riding around I would take Frank home and we would sit in front of his house and talk. He could never walk away without a few more chats.

We had a friend, Bob Dupere, who worked at a drugstore. This drugstore had a basement full of "medicinal" liquor. Needless to say, Bob would quite often liberate a bottle or two. One night after we had dropped Bob off, Frank decided he wanted to go over to my house (this was like 2:00 AM) wake up my father and play some poker. So off we went to my house. when we got there I went into the trunk to get the paper bag with the one half empty bottle and one full bottle. As I was taking the bag out Frank yelled out for me to hold it by the bottom of the bag. Too late! As I took the bag out a bottle fell through the bottom and smashed on the street. I thought Frank was going to cry. He whined "why did it have to be the full bottle". I don't know what the neighbors thought, but we went into the house, woke my father up, and played cards. My mother was not too happy! We used to call Frank "one beer Dickinson". Frank would have one beer and you would think he drank a 6 pack. Of course no matter how many more he had after he would not be any higher than with the one. There were so many good times later, even after I had gone into the Air Force. Whenever I was home we would definitely get together. We had always stayed in touch. I eventually moved to Florida for about 16 years so we got to see each other fairly often. After my wife passed away I moved back North, but we still talked on the phone regularly. Frank could never survive if he couldn't talk to somebody. 

So many memories over these past 68 years, but too many to try and put it all down here. I will find it very strange not to be getting a phone all every 4 or 5 days. It'll be very strange without him. Couldn't have had a better friend to talk and laugh with through all the good and bad times.

My Dad had several careers throughout his life. I first remember him as a candy maker working along side my grandfather at the factory across from FLL airport. My Mom was in the office doing bookkeeping and sometimes waiting on customers when we were short-handed. I remember spending a lot of time there. I would help put ingredients into the kettle to make caramel, fudge or whatever was being cooked that day. Grandad was usually dipping chocolates up front in the cooler area, the kitchen was hot, while the rest of the factory was kept pretty cold. 

Dad sold the candy business at some point to another company that still sells many of the same products today. He worked in accounting and business consulting and ended up in roofing after several years. He built a nice business that was doing really well for many years until the recession hit. After that and way longer than he should have, he continued to run the roofing business, climb on roofs, manage the day to day activities telling people what to do.

The one thing that stood out more than anything else was when he was talking to a customer or a potential customer. Throughout all of his careers, he was the quintessential salesman. Confident and not cocky. He was empathetic and he was nice. He knew what people cared about and how to talk to them. I think he enjoyed that the most. Talking to people, listening to people, and convincing them he was going to help them and be fair. He gained their trust, then he delivered.

In the final weeks at the hospital literally everyone that worked with him said how nice he was and how easy going he was. Even while dealing with pain, he was sensitive to people and the job they were doing. He was just that way.